"Oi... what a way to start a day..." Alex muttered to himself as he sat down at a table within a coffee shop for breakfast, a newspaper under his arm. The night hadn't been easy on the malachite manipulator, mainly because he had fallen out of the motel bed several times. Half way through he had given up trying to get some sleep and had spent the rest of the night filing out job applications that he had filled out the previous day. As a result, Alex's whole left forearm was one big bruise and he had faint black rings under his eyes. Now in order to make it through the day Alex was going to have to do something that he almost never did; have regular coffee instead of decaf.

"Morning Alex! Shall I get you the usual?" the coffee shop's owner Mark bellowed out from behind the cash register. Alex had tried this coffee shop once, and he loved it so much that he kept coming back here every day of the week since. "Yes Mark. Thank you, but I would like a regular cup of coffee this time, and put some extra hot sauce inside the omelet please.” Alex stated as he opened up his newspaper and turned to the classifieds. ”Regular coffee and extra hot sauce? Had a bad night did we?” Mark stated as he turned around to wash his hands in the sink before he broke open three eggs and started to beat them up while adding sharp cheddar cheese occasionally.

”The bags under my eyes gave me away?” Alex asked humorously as he started to scan through the classifieds, looking for a job opportunity as a custodian, but there wasn’t one. There was a rather promising opportunity as a locksmith at the hospital, but Alex’s locksmithing license didn’t meet New York City’s steep requirements. Besides, all of his tools were back in Kansas, and he wasn’t going back to get them since he would end up crossing paths with his family if he went back there. With a sad sigh, Alex turned to the comic strips and started to read Garfield, hoping that it would cheer him up. Roughly a month ago Alex had sold his oversized van so he would have some cash while he looked for a job and a place to stay, but that was the only money he had. He had emptied all of his Kansas bank accounts before he had left the Mid-West, had he had nearly used that all up already, paying for his motel rent and his meals. If Alex didn’t get a job soon, he was going to be in big trouble.

As Mark came over with the sausage stuffed omelet smothered in hot sauce and the large cup of coffee, Alex had turned to the front section of the paper and noticed that the main article had to do with a movie producer. ”You read that article about that movie producer coming here yet?” Mark asked as he placed Alex’s breakfast on the table and offered Alex a fork and knife. ”Not yet. Something special about it?” Alex responded as he handed fourteen dollars to Mark, and then used the fork to cut into the omelet and popped a hot sauce soaked piece of egg and sausage in his mouth. The moment he did, his mouth instantly was on fire, and Alex could’ve sworn that he could breathe fire at that moment, and the salt on the egg made his mouth hurt even more. Still Alex chewed it all up and swallowed, resulting in a burning sensation that went down his throat as the food went down his throat. It hurt like hell, but at least he was wide awake now, which was what he wanted.

”A new producer by the name of Rob Keyes is producing a movie with both human and mutant actors, and he’s hoping to show that humans and mutants can co-exist with each other with this film, and he’s going as far as nearly bank robbing himself to prove it. It’s going to be the first feature length movie to ever have a mutant take on the starring role… an actual mutant, not a human with fancy CGI to fake their powers. He’s also looking for some mutants to-“ Mark started to say as he walked back to the counter. ”Act as extras.” Alex interrupted as he started to read the news article while eating his breakfast. ”Every single mutant is going to be given 500 dollars up front, and even more money for each successful scene filmed. If a mutant distinguishes themselves, they will be offered a job as a minor actor in Hollywood!” Alex exclaimed as he summed up the full page news article.

Mark nodded as he started to clean up a glass. ”Yep. That article continues on passed that, saying that if a mutant doesn’t want his, or her, identity known then in the credits they will be given a nickname if they don’t provide one and that will be listed instead of their name, CGI will be used to edit out their powers if they don’t want them to be revealed, make up and synthetic masks can be used to hide their identities, and even some voice filters to give the mutants a false voice while on set.” Mark stated as he recalled what was in the newspaper. ”Food is even going to be provided for free, and since some mutants require an extremely large amount of food they are bringing enough to feed 10,000 people!” Alex stated with surprise, impressed that someone would go this far to provide for the needs of any mutant extras they get. Mark didn’t seem too happy though. ”Hmph. They’re doing this just a couple blocks down in the nearby park too. But with them providing food, I’m not going to get any extra business. Well, that’s how the ball bounces.”

Alex smiled and shook his head as he took a gulp of his coffee. This was, to say the least, amazing. No one had ever tried something like this, and Alex was thinking of signing up as an extra mutant. The money would come in handy and buy him a little extra time to find a real job… or maybe even give him one. Even if all he got was that 500, it was much better than nothing. ”Wow... when is this supposed to start?” Alex asked as he put another piece of hot sauce covered sausage in his mouth. ”You don’t know? It’s been all over the news. They started recruiting half an hour ago, and are going to start filming in two hours.” Mark stated, then jumped when Alex quickly scarfed down what was left of his omelet and quickly drank down his coffee. ”I take it you want to watch.” Mark commented as Alex jumped from his chair and darted out the door. ”Good day…”

Once outside, Alex quickly turned to face a large crowd of people that were gathering at the park, and started to quickly make his way over to the park.

With her jacket hood up to cover her face, April walked swiftly through New York's streets. In her gloved hands was a newspaper. There was some movie producer who wanted to make a film with both humans and mutants. And, they were looking for extras! Originally, April had not been too keen on the idea of going, but after some encouragement from her parents, she changed her mind. It would indeed be a good opportunity. "So, I turn here," she muttered, reading the directions to the park that she had scrawled next to the article.

As she made the turn, she happened upon a crowd. Obviously, the recruiting had gained massive amounts of attention. People of all sorts were clumped around the park. Of course, not all people were there to audition. The idea of human-mutant collaboration had probably sparked outrage among some group, as there were some protesters standing just outside of the park. They had some rather nasty slurs about mutants scribbled on their signs. April began to wish that she had not come. Fortunately, though, the police department had officers stationed around as well to keep an eye on things. She decided to press on.

Managing to slip past the protesters unnoticed, April walked into the park. Entering the crowd, April could not help but feel uneasy about herself. On the way there, her concealing clothing had not attracted much attention. But, that was because she had been moving quickly. Now that she was slowly walking in the crowd and bumping elbows with people, she felt like others were staring at her, as if they could see right through the hood. What made her feel even more uncomfortable was the fact that so far, everyone else had looked normal. She had hoped that she would not be the only one who stood out. What would the normal people here say? And, what if things got out of hand? April tried her best not to think about it as she moved deeper into the crowd, searching for the end of the line. Where was it?

Streak didn't have much time to read the newspaper. He always found it was covered with articles that no one really cared about and too many ads for him to be able to pick out the important stories anyways. He instead resorted to watching the news. Luckily, he'd seen the section of news about a movie producer auditioning mutants for a movie in New York. I could do that. Wouldn't hurt to broaden my horizons either. He thought.

The next mornnig he made his way up to the park where they were doing the auditions. There were plenty of people there, many of which it seemed didn't want the mutants there. He took the bus, a bit odd since he had his own car, but necessary since he didn't want to attract attention to his car while he was there. It turned out to be a great idea, taking the bus, when he arrived and found the area littered with what loked like protesters. It was a good thing that he had some pull around this town.

After he got off the bus he began pushing his way through the crowd. He saw the police holding them back and a few others just past the police line. On his way through he bumped an especially angry protester. "Hey watch it loser!" The man exclaimed. Streak turned a steely gaze on the man. His silver eyes made the man immediately try to back up a little bit. Unfortunately there was no where to go so he ended up just pushing some people behind him.

When Shawn got up to the police he pulled out his badge and they let him through. For once he was glad he'd gone through the academies mutant training program. Now past the angry crowds he fell in line behind a person all covered in a hood and carrying a newspaper. He began to wonder how long this was going to take.

It didn't take Alex that long to get to the park, but once he did arrive there he started to have second thoughts. It wasn't the gigantic number of mutants that wanted a chance to become an extra in a movie with a chance to become a full blown actor, but all of the protesters that were surrounding the filming site. Seeing all of those people with bill boards that had anti-mutant propaganda written all over them made it impossible for a mutant to feel safe in this location. The police were clearly doing the best they could in an attempt to keep the peace, but there were a few protesters that attempted to get through and harass the mutants with a bat or crowbar... but they were always stopped by a policeman before they could get anywhere close to the mutants and were promptly led away in handcuffs. This place was a powder keg, question is what would set off?

Clearing his throat, Alex pushed the fear he was feeling to the back of his mind and made his way over to the crowd of mutants, that were moving towards the sign in stations quite quickly thanks to the fact there were at least 50 sign in stations, so it clearly wasn't going to take long for the people here in line to get checked in. After glancing around for a bit, Alex got in line behind a man with silvery eyes. As the line moved forwards bit by bit, Alex glanced around to see whom else was in the crowd. There was a woman about his age that had skin made of copper instead of normal flesh, an elderly man in a wheel chair with a woman with ebony hair next to him whom Alex assumed was the older man's nurse aide, another person that looked human but when he sneezed a swarm of blue jays and humming birds flew out of the hand that he had used to cover his mouth, and what looked like a small dragon which Alex guessed was a mutant shape shifter... all of which were waiting in line to check in. Mutants of all shapes and sizes were here, and they all wanted a chance at being in a movie as an extra. With a shrug, Alex turned to the silver eyed man and stated "Quite the turn out, wouldn't you agree?"

After he had asked that question Alex realized that the person standing in front of the silver eyed man, a young woman who was covering her face with a hooded jacket, had reached the front of the line and was being invited into one of the check in booths by a elderly woman with a warm smile on her face. "Hello little one. Let's get you checked in." the elderly woman stated kindly before leading the girl with the hooded jacket off to the left and into a enclosed check in booth. As she was being led away, a Gothic girl with a spunky look in her eyes came over to the silver eyed man and smiled at him. "Hi there! Come on over and lets get you checked in!" the glee filled Gothic girl stated with a twinkle in her eyes before she led him off to another enclosed booth that was off to the right.

As those two were led off, a young man that looked like a stunt double came over to Alex and gave him a smirk. "Okay, your my next victim." the man stated as he continued to smirk. "Well put." Alex stated, not really that amused before he followed the man into another enclosed booth. Inside, there was a desk with a computer, and a very comfortable looking chair on both sides of the desk. the stunt man sat on the side with the computer facing him, and Alex sat on the opposite side. "Okay, I have a few questions for you This is going to take a little bit so bare with me. Every single extra are going to be asked these. First, would you like to go by your family name or a nickname, and if a nickname would you like me to provide you with one or do you have one in mind already?" The stunt double asked. Alex smiled, knowing that this would take a while. "I'll go with a nickname. How about Mala Knight?" Alex stated. What he had meant to say was malachite but his tongue had slipped. However, he liked what he had said even more, so he went with it. "Okay. If you use your mutant power by mistake would you like us to use CGI to edit it out?" "Sure, and if you want to you can use CGI to make it look like I have a different mutation." "Hey that was my next question. Don't get ahead of me. Now, would you like something to hide your identity while you are here, such as make up, synthetic mask to make it look like you have a different face, or maybe a voice filter? I'm asking this because some cameras will be rolling while you are off set to record some of our DVD extras. These recruiting sessions will not be used." Hearing that question and the reason behind it, Alex decided to go with something that would hide him if his family if they chose to watch this movie once it was done. "Let's go with the voice filter." Alex stated, and the stunt double nodded. He reached into a box behind his desk and pulled out a mask with a voice filter and handed it to Alex. "One voice filter, and you get to keep it after everything is done. It's yours." Hearing that, Alex's jaw dropped. "No kidding?"

As he asked that question, a small machine printed out a check that was marked for 500 dollars. The stunt man smiled and handed Alex the check. "No kidding. It has a fresh AA battery in it too. Here is your up front 500 dollars, and you will get more for each successful take. Have fun." The stunt double stated, then flicked his thumb at the door behind him, as if that was where Alex was suppose to go. With a nod, Alex slipped on the voice filter. "Thank you. Hey! It works!" Alex exclaimed from behind the voice filter, his voice now sounding more robotic then human now. With that, Alex walked out the back door of the booth.

Sam was doing something remarkably out of character for him; he was going to sign up for something that only a mutant could do.
The whole thing had started a week or so ago when Celeste had mentioned some movie that was to be filmed here in New York. Faced with Sam’s obvious lack of interest the rich girl had then hurriedly added that it was the world’s first mutant/human movie and gone on to explain all about the romantic based plot. The whole mutant/human aspect of things had stirred some curiosity in the illusion mutant and Sam had ended up digging into things a bit more once he got back to the mansion.

It was not that he believed that this was the first time human’s and mutant’s had acted together; because it was highly probable that mutant’s that looked human had just omitted to mention their powers in the past; but more that he liked the idea that people knew that human’s and mutant’s were acting together. It was going to change things, whether for the better or the worst no one knew, but people’s opinions would definitely change. So after a whole lot of googling he found out that if you were brave, or foolish, enough you could go and sign up to have your own small part of the spotlight as a paid extra. At first he had found the idea laughable, what kind of mutant would sell himself for this kind of thing.

But the seeds of an idea had been planted and as the days wore on it just kept coming back to haunt him. Would he be able to own up to being a mutant for this kind of thing? Announce it to the world? Or was he really that ashamed of what he was? The answer was no, he was not ashamed of being a mutant he was hurt by it. Hurt that his mutation had broken apart his family and secretly more hurt that he had known his family was falling apart even before that. The truth broke his heart and he knew that he stayed faithful to himself he’d just spend more time feeling sorry for himself, blaming fate for having made him and outcast. So he had decided to do something so un-Sam like that it might just give him to kick start he needed to move on with his life.

So now he was sitting in a booth, facing a stranger and answering all sorts of weird questions. When they asked him for his alias he gave “glamour” as he decided that it fitted his power. They also asked a bit about his power, like how dangerous it was and he could easily tell them that he was not a threat to anyone. And just like that it the interview was over, no questions about acting skills or anything. They handed him a check and a number and told to wait outside until called.
As he walked out into the weak sunlight he felt a bit dazed. What was going to happen next? And more importantly, was he really going to be able to do this or was it all just one huge mistake?

There was quite a crowd, but thanks to the fifty-some-odd sign-in booths set up, the line was moving quickly. She was already at the front. Silently, she surveyed her surroundings. She figured that she was indeed in the right area because there were definately a lot of mutants nearby. Nearby, there was some teenage guy showing off his size-adjustment ability to a teenage girl with glowing purple eyes. A little further away, she spotted a woman with metallic skin. Evedentally, that woman had some spine for walking in public like that, something April wished she had more of. She saw a few more normal-looking people. A quick glance revealed that the dark-haired guy just behind her had silver eyes. The brown-haired man behind him looked normal, though. April then heard a man sneeze, and looked to see several small birds fly out. She did not want to imagine what those birds had been made out of. Looking back at the booths, she sighted an elderly woman approaching.

"Hello little one. Let's get you checked in."

The kindly-looking woman led April to a private check-in booth. Soon after they sat at the desk, the old woman fiddled with the computer for a short while. Obviously, she did not have much experience with them, just like a lot of elders. Finally, she got it to work. "Sorry about that, dearie. Now we can get started." She eyed the hood. "Dear, you can take that off now. No one else can see." Sighing, April removed the jacket hood to expose her face. The woman did not seem to show a reaction to her appearance. "See, you look fine." This puzzled April. It appeared that, in addition to being a technophobe, that this woman was either very considerate or horridly nearsighted.

Then, the elderly woman pulled out a list of application questions. "Alrighty, dear. Let's see... would you like to go by your family name or a nickname?" April thought for a second. "Family name's fine. It's April Jones." She did not have any good reason to hide her real name, but even if there was, there were probably a million people out there called April Jones. The woman slowly typed that into the computer, then looked back at the list. "That's nice. Ready for the next? If you use your mutant power by mistake would you like us to use... CGI?" April knew that, despite looking funny, her power was not hard to control, so she answered,"Uhh... sure, but I don't think there'll be a problem." After she had typed that in, the woman continued, "Ready, dear? Would you like something to hide your identity while you are here, such as make up, a mask, or maybe a voice filter? There'll be cameras behind the scenes. These sessions won't be used."

As she stopped to think for, April slumped back in the chair. She did not need to hide from anyone, but at the same time, she wished she could. At last, she answered, "I'll pass." She figured that if it was not necessary, then she could do without. The old woman typed something in, and a check printed out. With a smile like a grandmother, she gave the check to April. "Good luck, little one," she said, still smiling. April smiled back in return as she left through the back of the booth. But, she had overlooked something. She had forgotten to put the hood back up. It seemed that those who had noticed were staring, even though she was not the only one who looked strange. Still, it was too late to retreat back under the hood.

The line was moving fast now that he was actually in it. Before he knew what was happening the person in front of him was taken away by a very grandmotherly looking lady. While he was waiting for someone to come and take him he heard the guy behind him speak up.

"Quite the turn out, wouldn't you agree?"

"Ya way more than I expected." Streak commented glancing back at the man speaking. Before anymore of a conversation could get started he was whisked away from the stranger by a Gothic girl. The girl sat in front of her computer and fired it up. She immediately started with the questions.

"Okay, would you like to go by your family name or a nickname? Do you already have a nickname?"

"I'll go with my alias. Sliver Streak." Streak commented. It's not that he didn't like his name it was just that he preferred to go by that instead of it. It always seemed to fit him which is why he came up with it so long ago and had been going by it ever since.

The Gothic girl filled in his answers quickly. It was obvious she was used to computers and liked her job. She then moved on to her next question. "If you use your mutant power by mistake would you like us to use CGI to edit it out?"

"No I'm good. Y'all wont have to edit anything out." Streak answered.

"Ok last question. Would you like something to hide your identity while you are here, such as make up, a mask, or maybe a voice filter? There'll be cameras behind the scenes. These sessions won't be used." This last part sounded a bit like it was scripted but she was probably told to read it like that verbatim.

He smiled."No I don't need anything to hide my powers. He was about to walk out when she asked him one last question. As the check printed out she cleared her throat and asked.

"This one isn't on there but...can I see your powers?" Again Streak smiled. He had no problem showing his powers and he figured that he'd be like this every time he showed up.

The silvermancer covered himself in silver and stood up. He put on a little demonstration for her before she handed him the check and he walked out. The girl seemed so excited it was unbelievable. Maybe she just really liked her job. Streak walked out the door in the back and stood saw a bunch of mutants staring at one person. Streak walked over to her and loudly said to all of them, "What wrong y'all have never seen another mutant before? Go back to eating your donuts and drink your coffee." His entirely silver body was certainly something to stare at but from his reaction most of the turned around and went about their conversations from before. Streak looked at the girl and just smiled. If she was here then they'd spend plenty of time with everyone standing around.

After Alex walked out of the back door of the booth, he could see just how many mutants had already been interviewed to be an extra... there were at least eight dozen mutant extras, and those were the mutants with visible mutations! It was impossible to count the total number of mutants that were here, and it was clear that some of the mutants had already been participating in some of the scenes that had already been filmed. It was no wonder the news paper article had stated that they would be paid extra for each successful scene that had been filmed... there was a chance that they would never end up in front of the camera at all. However, Alex was alright with that. The 500 bucks was all he needed to make ends meet for a time.

He was quickly roused from his thoughts when he heard a ruckus coming up from his left. Turning on his heel, Alex saw the same girl with a hooded jacket, only this time her hood was down to show her green skin and hair. Another mutant with skin made of silver was near her and he was shooing away some people that seemed to be staring at the girl. Seeing this, Alex couldn't help but smile behind the voice filter and nod approvingly. It was nice to see that there were people that chose to talk things out rather then punch them out, even when they had a whole lot of power.

It was at that moment that a blond haired woman in a brown dress with a clip board hurried over towards the booths, looking around a little frantically, as if she was trying to find someone. It was then she looked over at the young woman with green skin and the man with silver skin and she nodded with a smile, and quickly hurried over in their direction. "You two are perfect for the scene we're going to be doing in a moment or two. Let's see, I need two more people... Ah!" the woman exclaimed and quickly waved at a dark haired boy that looked like he was part Korean. "Excuse me, young man? Could you come over here? I have a scene you can be in." the woman called, then started to look around for one more person. Seeing this, Alex walked over to them. "If you need another person, I'm available." Alex stated, his voice having a robotic hint to it thanks to the voice filter he was wearing. The woman, whose name read Hannah, turned to face Alex and glanced him over. "Hmm... maybe. Oh! Wait! That battle hardened look in your eyes makes you perfect for the scene we are filming after this one... but it makes it impossible for you to be in this scene. Do you mind?" the woman asked as she glanced down at her clip board, then back up at Alex, whom nodded. As the woman looked around, she saw the elderly man in a wheel chair with his nurse maid by his side rolling over to them. "Would we be able to be in the scene? It would have to be one with out much movement." the old man asked gruffly.

With a smile, the woman with the clip board nodded. "Yes, of course this is an easy one. Oh! I never said what scene we're filming, did I? Sorry! I have a tendency to become forgetful when I'm ecstatic . Okay! We are doing a scene within a Cafe in where the two main characters of the movie first meet. They are forced to sit together because of how full the Cafe is. All you guys will have to do is sit down in different parts of the cafe and basically talk about any old topic to create some background noise, or maybe talk about how wonderful your meal is... or how badly they messed up your order as the case may be. We can talk about this more if you agree to be an extra in this scene. Want to?" the woman asked, a bead of sweat appearing on her forehead out of embarrassment for forgetting to tell them about what scene they are doing.

"Easy enough." the old man answered while his nurse maid nodded. Hearing the old man's response, Alex glanced up at the Korean boy, the green girl, and the silver man to see if they would agree.

"What wrong y'all have never seen another mutant before? Go back to eating your donuts and drink your coffee."

April turned around to see who had said that. She ended up coming face-to face with a silver man. It was nice of him to stand up for her, but did he have to be so rude to those people? Looking back at the crowd, she saw that they did indeed stop staring. Despite the bluntness of the way he spoke to the others, April was glad that they were no longer looking at her.

"Umm, thanks," she said gratefully to the silver guy. Was he the guy with the silver eyes who was behind her in line earlier? She was not quite sure, but he did sort of look like him. It could be possible that he could turn the silver skin thing on and off.

Suddenly, a hurried blond-haired woman jogged towards them. After scoping out the area, she called April and the silver guy over. From what she said, it was apparent that she needed people for a scene, and fast. This woman then called out to someone else. April glanced over to see that the person was Sam. She felt a tad relieved to see a familiar face, even if it was that of someone who she had an awkward run-in with at the Institute's library. Smiling, she waved to him and said, "Hi Sam."

"If you need another person, I'm available."

That was a rather robotic-sounding voice. The source appeared to be the man April had seen in line earlier. This time, he was wearing a goofy-looking mask. April tried not to laugh, especially because she did not want to sound rude when the lady had turned him down for the scene. An old man in a wheelchair offered to participate in his place. The woman then gave a rushed summary of the scene, which would be in a cafe, presumably near the beginning of the movie. Obviously, she did not have much time on her hands. Typical chaotic work. April hesistated a moment before accepting the woman's offer.

"S-sure," April responded, a bit nervously.

As Alex waited to see how the other three people would react to the woman's suggested scene. It seemed like an easy enough part to play for a rookie extra. All they had to do was take a seat in the background while eating a plateful of food. Simple, easy, almost no effort required. He was actually starting to wish he didn't turn this scene down in favor of one that required someone that had battle hardened eyes. Battle hardened eyes? Wait a tic... Alex thought and quickly raised a hand to get the woman's attention after the green colored girl accepted.

"Wait, can you tell me about the scene I'm going to be in?" Alex asked in the robotic tone that the voice filter had given him. Hearing Alex's question, the woman with the clipboard quickly turned to face him while glancing at her clipboard. "Well, it's one of the several action scenes we're going to film. Basically the main characters have to fight off a group of terrorists that are disguised as gangsters, and a few extras are going to be allowed to join the stunt men that are playing the part of the terrorists. Now, all you'll have to do is-" "No thank you." Alex stated flatly, interrupting the woman, whom was clearly taken aback by Alex's sudden refusal. "This battle hardened gleam in my eyes isn't fake ma'am. I'm a seasoned boxer and I don't hold back. If I'm put into a part where I'm in a fight against an actor... well, the chances of that actor getting a broken jaw are quite high. Sorry for my rude tone, but I think it's best that I'm not in that action sequence." Alex explained, this time politely.

Hearing this, the woman nodded and put a mark on her clip board. "Eh, that's alright. I have room for several more people in this cafe scene." the woman stated, then turned to the silver skinned man and the Korean boy that the green girl referred to as Sam. "Well, while you two are still making up your minds, I can still show all of you the set where we will be filming. Just follow me." The woman stated, then quickly started to walk towards a building that was in the middle of the park, glancing back over her shoulder every now and then to double check that everyone was following her.

With a nod, Alex started to follow the woman towards the set, then glanced at the girl with green skin, and held out his hand for her to shake. "Hi. I'm Mala Knight."

Storming down a sidewalk, Andrea shook her coat off once more. Spilling nearly an entire cup of coffee on her herself hadn't improved the mood she had woken up in. With her wild, dark hair locked in braids, snake free since her encounter with the Lion man, she blew her bangs from her vision and folded the garment over her arm. Her day had officially started by waking up from a rather stressful nightmare. The fact that she had woken up late had also sent her into fits, having thrown off her entire schedule. She had gotten a shower late, done her laundry late, eaten late, and run the few errands she had to do late. Muttering bitter Greek curses, she continued on her war path, busily adjusting Sloth around her neck so that he wasn't pulling on her head. Eventually, she was stopped in her tracks by the sight of a rather large gathering of people many yards in front of her. They were all gathered by the park and she could hear shouts even from the distance. The Greeks first urge was to turn and find another way home, since it was obviously some kind of Anti-mutant rally. For a person with a giant snake attached to her head and spots that decorated her from head to toe, she'd stand out like a sore thumb. But... upon closer examination, she noticed that there was an unusually large number of visibly mutated people also gathered around. Arching an eyebrow, she decided to continue on and see what was happening.

Approaching the very back of the crowd, she glanced about to get a bearing. Everyone who was standing around had either formed into lines, or were gathered into splintered groups. Sloth uncovered his head as his mistress approached, yawning widely as he awoke from a nap. The great white serpents slim pink tongue flicked out to taste the air. He was curious about the crowds as well. Padding forward, Sloth hissed loudly as she neared others. Which, though slightly embarrassing, did well to keep people a good distance from her. Though he couldn't spit like the others had been able to, his bite proved just as dangerous as her touch. Still...It also kept people too far away to answer question.

After a moment of wandering around, she found herself standing next to one of the lines. Andrea reigned in her snake momentarily, in order to get close to someone. "Excuse me... what is going on here?" The boy she had asked, who could not have been any older than her, turned his head and angled three sets of spider like eyes her way. They all blinked together, and she couldn't stop herself from jumping a little. What, you haven't heard? Everyone's here to get famous!" Andrea eyed him quietly, not quite sure if she should believe him, when he turned from her suddenly. He yelled something to someone in a different line, then turned back and grabbed her hand. "Hey, will ya do me a favor and save my spot? I have to run for a sec...Kaythanksbye!" She was dragged the few steps into his place, and then... he was gone. She was left standing in an ever shortening line, confused and dumbstruck as to what to do. Was she to say?... what if he didn't come back? What if she got to the front of the line... but he wasn't there to re-claim it from her?! Chewing on her bottom lip, Andrea kept her hands on Sloth and simply followed along as the line shorted.

Pretty soon she was relieved of waiting, when she was pulled into a tent and sat down behind a desk. The man who sat before her typed away for a moment, then finally looked at her. "Alrighty, would you like to use your family name, or an alias?" She stared at him, eyebrows peeking out from over her sunglasses. "...uh.. family name?" She answered, stumbling over her grasp on the English dialect in her confusion. He stared back, waiting. ".... and that would be...?" She jumped again. "... Andrea Gordon?" He tapped away at his keys again, and she leaned a little to try and see what he was writing. Then, he moved through a few other questions, about mutations, appearance, and her voice. "...Um... No?" She answered quietly, understanding the situation less and less as it went on. Filming? What on earth were they filming? Then the questions stopped, he printed out a little rectangle of paper and handed it to her. She was booted from the tent politely, so the next person could enter, and left standing with a check she didn't know what to do with, in a situation she didn't know how to handle.

So she stood there, blinked, and let herself absorb her surroundings.

Today was one of the worst days in history, far beyond anything he'd experienced before. He'd rather get into another intense car crash then see what was going on now. Mutants and normal people working together to make a movie. This was disgusting, horrid, and it smelled worse then his socks. Yes he was a mutant, but he was on a different level then most mutants. He looked normal. What kind of message was this, some sick intent to let the world know it was perfectly fine to be a freak and be proud of it? A bunch of bull, complete sickening bull. Next thing they would say would be 'its okay for a unicorn man to end the world'. This was just unbearable.

With a bit of poking around in the internet, he found out about camps a few years back where mutants were put away. They should go back to those days, getting all the obvious mutants tucked away and away from society. If they did that, he could live a normal life, a life where he didn't have to deal with girls turning into wolves or monkey gargoyles kneeing him in the groin. People like him would be able to mix in with the rest of the crowd. While they were at it, they should shove people like Ms Taylor away behind bars or ship her off to some new camp to keep those freaks in control.

It was in this disgust his eyes drew him closer to the growing crowds picketing the movie. He certainly couldn't blame them in the slightest. Weaving his way through the growing mob, his extremities tingled with anticipation. He wasn't the only one disgusted with what was happening. Be it that he was a typical pigheaded male or his gluttonous teen appetite for hot chicks. A movie where chicks would have mutations and stuff, well not attractive at all. He liked his babes 'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit' style. Curves should be in the right places and skin tone should be natural, not freak mutated. Sorry, but mutant babes that didn't look normal were worse then a cold shower.

With squinted piercing eyes watching in disgust over the registration line, he couldn't help but feel the wild beast in him rising. A sneer on his face scowled with each ushered person through the security of the filming. Sure the cash aspect of the whole thing was tempting, but he'd rather die a thousand deaths before his face was plastered with the rest of the mutant freaks in the movie. Criminal background, check. Bouncing from the law, check. Hiding in the Xmen to keep his own petty acts of crime undercover, check. Sure he went on a mission with two members of the Xmen team to stop some other mutants, but he did things his way. No one was his boss, and he wasn't going to let some 'normalish' adults tell him what to do while they made a freaking water spout spin through NYC. Whatever.

Turning his back on the crowd, Hokee pushed his way towards the back edges only to be stopped by a man dressed discretely. "Disgusting huh?"The long dreadlocks swung to the side creating a ripple effect around the course of his head."No sh** Sherlock."He didn't need some bloke telling him the obvious right now. It was plain to see how messed up this all was. The director was an idiot, what were they thinking when they came up with this dumb idea. "You can stop it kid. Make a big bang in history." Before that was said, he was ready to tail out of there, but his attention was caught. Maybe this guy knew something about what was going on. The whole movie thing could be something that wacked out unicorn dude was using to take out the world. A long shot, but it didn't phase him in the slightest if that was the underlying justification for this morbid idea. "How." It wasn't a question, but more along the lines of a statement.

Before he could say a word, the guy was taking a hold of his pants and shoving something down them."What the hell, I'm not Justin Beiber."Taking a hold of the guy's hand, his eyes drifted down into his pants. "Woah, woah, woah."Pulling up the device a bit, he couldn't believe what was shoved into his pants.

"Get onto the set, close enough to plant that."The voice was quiet and quick. There was no doubt about the sharp tone or implications on how important this was. "Do whatever it takes. Stop the movie."

The man's grip on his pants left and was gone before Hokee could get another word in. Resetting his shirt back down, the teen delinquent maneuvered into the crowd. With one hand in his pocket, he tried to adjusted himself to this added weight. He needed to stop the movie, he had to get the explosive out of his pants....and while he was at it, maybe he could get a little necking in with a human extra. There had to be normal people as extras in the movie and if the crazy guy was right....there would be some scared women needing comforting. Smuggling a bomb onto a set couldn't be much different then shoplifting stuff out of a store. This would be a piece of cake, sweet justice cake.

Streak is there for a second waiting for anyone to say something. No one did. His reply may have come off as a little abrasive but it worked. After she thanked him he simply replied, "Your welcome."

He was about to say more but soon a lady came up looking for extras for some scene. Apparently him and the girl fit what they were looking for. He wasn't quite sure since all they would be doing is making background noise for the scene.

"Sure. I can do that." He hd to resist from laughing outlook at the guy in the mask and robotic voice. Not because his voice sounded funny or the mask looked like it fit him weird but because he had 'battle hardened eyes'.

If that was all it took to look 'battle hardened' then he must have the look of freakin Rambo. Nothing against him. He looked like it. Streak just didn't feel that boxing made you battle hardened. Battles against people trying to kill you made you battle hardened.

Just before he started following the lady he heard the man introduce himself to the girl. Mala knight he'd have to remember that. "I'm Silver Streak but every body calls me Streak." though the Korean boy named Sam, he introduced himself, and Mala Knight the only person he didn't know was the girls name. But there would probably be time for that during the scene.

Things on set moved a lot faster than Sam would have imagined. He had expected to have some time to look around but instead he had been caught up in the whirlwind that was the first scene.
He had barely had time to notice that the girl that was causing a scene some way of was in fact April, when another one of those clipboard people had called over to him. Well he had come here to do some acting so he made his way towards the place the woman was gathering her selected extras. As he arrived there April greeted him in her usual polite and to the point fashion and he acknowledged her with a nod and a smile in return. He would normally have said more but things were moving forward again.

The blond headed off and left the rest of them to trail after her. He had not even been able to tell her that he was ok to be in the scene but he guessed she would know seeing as he had followed. The group she had gathered was strange to say the least. But then again that was the premise of this movie was it not? He listened carefully as the others around him introduced themselves. Mala knight and Silver Streak… why did the name silver streak seem familiar? He thought about it for a couple of seconds searching his memory for where he might have heard someone speak the name. Then it came to him, he had heard it back at school; which could only mean that this guy had something to do with Xavier’s. Frustrated at not being able to remember more details he turned his attention to the man in the wheelchair. He had not said anything during the exchange of greetings and Sam wondered what he thought of all this.

It was then that he realized that he had not spoken up to introduce himself either.
“Hi as April said I’m Sam, looking forward to working with you all.”

There that took care of the social niceties now he just wanted to see what the set would hold for them. He had never been on a movie set before and even though the clipboard woman had said it was just a café scene he was still very curious.

As Alex followed the woman with the clip board towards the filming set, he glanced over his shoulder as the man made of silver introduced himself as Silver Streak. It was quite the fitting name for him, to say the least. The Korean boy repeated what the green girl has stated, saying that his name was Sam and he referred to her as April. Clearly the two of them knew each other, so in Alex's opinion the two of them should be kept together at first so they would be able to relax while the camera was recording... but then again this was his first time under the lens of a movie camera too, so he was just going to have to follow the woman's instructions on what to do.

As they continued to walk, the elderly man grunted and spoke up. "Since everyone is introducing themselves, I might as well too. Just call me Elder. This is my granddaughter, Anna." the old man stated, and the young woman pushing his wheel chair gave a nod. Clearly she wasn't much of a talker. Noticing this, her grandfather glanced up at her and shook his head. "Anna, you're not going to meet any nice guys if you don't talk every now and then." Elder stated, causing Alex to whip his head around to look at the older man while furrowing his eyebrows. "Grandpa! Please, we're in public!" Anna exclaimed in horror as her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment, and mouthed an apology towards everyone in the crowd. Still a little bit bewildered, Alex shrugged and turned back to look where he was walking... and it was a good thing to since he almost walked right into a tree.

Once they had arrived at the cafe, the woman with the clip board let them into the cafe, revealing that there were several extras in there already, some human and some mutants. It was an old fashion 80's cafe, and almost every single seat was taken. There were at least two empty tables though, one red and one blue, along with a few empty chairs at the counter, though none of them were near each other. The woman walked over to the blue table. "This table is where the lead actors are going to sit, so please take a seat else where in the cafe. Since the only detailed conversation that our mikes will pick up will be between the lead actor and actress, the extras can talk about what ever you want." The woman stated, then turned to face Sam and April. "Since you two seem to know each other, could I suggest that the two of you sit with each other and talk about something that would fit people your age? Such as needing a hand with homework, a new job that one of you managed to get, maybe even act as if you two are on your first date. You don't have to do any of the things I suggested, they are just ideas." the woman suggested before she turned to face Alex and Streak. "Since the bar doesn't have any free seats that are next to each other, you two are going to have to really think about what you're going to do. I do have a few suggestions if you want to hear them." the woman stated, though Alex held up his hand to stop her. "No need. I already have something in mind." Alex stated, then started to walk over towards one of the empty seats of the bar.

The woman nodded in approval, then smiled. "Any questions before I leave to look for more extras?"

Mean while, a middle aged man wearing a ball cap while carrying a bull horn was walking around and looking over each filming set when he noticed a green skinned woman with a white snake coming from her head with a rather bewildered look on her face. Curious, he walked over to her. "Excuse me miss, are you alright? You seemed a little out of it. Most of the extras here are overjoyed with this rare chance." the man stated in a gentle tone, though it was clear that he was used to giving out orders.